


Crying In A Prom Dress

by jaegerjuice



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Adrien Agreste/Marinette Dupain-Cheng Fluff, Adrinette, Angst, F/M, Fluff, Prom, adrien luvs her though :), lets be real luka deserves better, marinette is sad :(, yes it's from the song
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-20 20:55:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21288044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jaegerjuice/pseuds/jaegerjuice
Summary: Marinette is under a lot of stress and finds herself slowly crumbling because of it. Thankfully someone comes to help.
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, Luka Couffaine/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug
Comments: 4
Kudos: 116





	Crying In A Prom Dress

**Author's Note:**

> Hiya! Kinda new and delving into ML writing because I've been getting into a lot so! Yeah! I was hoping to write something for Kinktober, but I never got around to finishing it (story of my life lmao). I was listening to the iconic song when I got this idea and I impulse wrote it. The characters kinda waver in terms of mood and are kinda OOC but I hope you'll get the overall jist of it! Thanks for reading!

It was raining outside. Hard. 

Marinette had always thought the rain was calming and in some way, gentle. Her association of the two stretched beyond her comprehension. She wasn't really aware of where she had started feeling like the warmth of love and kindness was rooted in rain. This feeling wasn't delight or comfort but instead dread. 

Her phone dinged, and though her eyes were blurry with water, she knew it was from Luka. He would be here soon. He would come in and greet her parents down in the bakery and end up waiting forever down there. Her makeup was streaked across her face; it would take so much longer to redo. 

"What am I going to do, Tikki?" Anyone who heard her voice would've known she was crying. It was a good thing Tikki was there on her lap through all of it. "I don't...I don't feel right at all. This is supposed to be such a big night and I've somehow already ruined it."

"You didn't ruin it, Marinette." She flew up to her owner's cheeks. "Not everything goes as planned, and that's okay. Not only are you ladybug, but you're Marinette. You'll find a way to get through this. For what it's worth, I still think you look beautiful. Luka is probably going to think so too." 

Oh. Luka. Right. He was probably going to say she looked perfect. Whether he was obligated to or not. Did it mean anything in the end if she didn't feel perfect anyway? 

These white heels made her five times taller, and would definitely get dirty by the end of the night. She didn't even want to get started on the dress, which probably had some kind of stain somewhere. It was a bright white strapless, sheath dress that reached well below her ankles even. Also covered by a layer of flowery lace, it didn't fit Prom. It didn't fit Marinette.

She laughed bitterly before gripping her dress and pulling it up. "Look at the stitchwork. No wonder why it's coming apart at the seams," Small threads hung and frayed from the end as if the dress had already been worn. "Maybe someone else can wear this, but I can't. Not because the quality is bad, but...Marinette.. me... this isn't my kind of dress. I didn't even pick it, for Pete's sake!"

"Well.. how about you start by fixing your makeup? You look like a banshee." Tikki teased while wiping a small streak Marinette had across her cheek. 

"I bet I do," She appreciated how Tikki attempted to cheer her up. "This dress looks like I'm going to my Grandmother's wedding." 

"Your grandmother is actually nice, Marinette. Don't insult her." Tikki flew to the bedside table to grab a handheld mirror for her owner so she could see how amusing she looked. "And you never know, maybe you'll be wearing a dress just like this on your wedding day."

"Don't jinx it, Tikki. I hope I find something a lot more than... this." It wasn't a bad dress, not by any means. If she was given a specific model, maybe she might have made a dress like this. But with her dark strands, blue eyes, and white complexion, the last thing it screamed was prom. "When Alya pitched the matching idea to me, I thought it was going to be great. We were going to have so much fun--"

"You still are! This night is what you make of it!" 

"I don't know how much fun I'm going to have in this. Bless her heart, but Alya is a better blogger than she is a designer." A sigh left her lips that barely had any lipstick left after crying. Another ping came from her phone. She stared at it for a few moments before looking down. "I gotta do my makeup again before he gets here. I think I'll just have to... deal with it. Hopefully, I'm more Ladybug tonight than Marinette."

Tikki was going to disagree but was interrupted by the faint call of her owner's name from downstairs. It was her mother, which meant that Luka was definitely here to pick her up. 

Marinette froze, not able to comprehend the words her mother yelled up to her after her name was called. Shortly after, panic took over and she immediately got up and rummaged through her vanity for whatever she could to get the makeup off and back on. As clumsy as she was, she fumbled with everything, dropping everything on the floor around her. Nothing was given more than a glance from her though. 

A knock came to her trapdoor, to which both she and Tikki turned their heads to. Luka was here already. How was she possibly going to explain this? She accidentally spilt some water on her face? He was probably going to be upset because she wasn't ready, far from it, not to mention they'd be late to meeting Alya and Nino. 

All of these thoughts raced through her head as she softly stepped over to her trapdoor, bracing for Luka's negative reaction. Instead, she was greeted with a totally different face. "Adrien?"

At the bottom of her stairs was indeed the blonde boy, carrying a box of pastries from her family's bakery. While his expression remained positive for the first second he spotted her, it quickly turned to worry as he observed the mess all over her face and her dishevelled hair. A pile of makeup items were in her arms as if she had hastily grabbed them before she answered her door.

"Marinette? Are you alright?" He didn't even ask her if he could come in before quickly climbing the stairs to her room. She moved back, trying to figure out why and how he even got here. Her mind hadn't even begun to process how he was looking at her in this state. It clicked though when she saw the box of pastries in his hands that he had put down as soon as he got in.

"Oh, I.. I totally forgot your Dad ordered catering to be picked up today." The words came out more like a mumble than a stable sentence. Her heart rate had increased slightly, but it had gotten better as they had spent more time together. Marinette had gotten over it, mostly. 

"Forget about the catering," The boy said, clearly distraught. "Have you been crying?" Many other questions plagued his mind as well, but he needed that one answered first. 

She didn't know how to respond to that. Obviously, yes. Though she could barely form words as to what she was feeling, especially with him here. "Is it really that much of a surprise?" Once again, she humorlessly laughed. "It is Prom Night. I was bound to get my heart broken at some point."

Instead of an answer, Adrien pulled her over to her bed so they could both sit down. Marinette hesitantly followed, and fleeting moments of Adrien just looking at how sad she was passed. "What did Luka do?" 

"Luka?" That was the funniest thing she had heard all night. So much so she let out a genuine chuckle. "Luka didn't do anything. He's coming to get me...soon I guess." She would have to check his texts at some point. 

"What's wrong then? This is supposed to be a big night for you. Alya told me you guys were really looking forward to it." His concerned gaze never left her eyes, even when they were covered in smudged mascara. She looked back to him and cherished his presence. He was close, despite her looking like the corpse bride. She looked back at her dress. 

"It sounds so stupid but... it's my dress." Wow, it sounds even stupider when she says it out loud. "It was supposed to be a great night. I was so sure I was going to have fun but I put this dress on and it was like I was missing something." 

Adrien tried as hard as possible not to look down at her dress, but he gave in. He hadn't even noticed it when he walked in, his attention totally on making Marinette feel better. "What's wrong with your dress? You look..." He trailed off.

"Bad, I know." 

"What? No! Marinette, you look stunning!" He meant it. But even he could tell why Marinette didn't feel good in this dress. It didn't look like she made it, and it definitely didn't look like something she would wear. "I just meant that you don't look like a girl that's about to go to prom. Along with the dress, you should be happy. You deserve to feel good about what you're wearing. Is that what the problem is?"

The girl, on the other hand, couldn't hold back the blush that came across her cheeks by being complimented by her ex-crush. It was nice, and somewhat convinced her it wasn't as bad as she thought. "Yeah, I guess so. If I don't have the dress part down then what is there to be happy about?" 

"You're going with Alya and Nino." He clarified, still trying to convince her. 

"Alya and Nino? You know they're just going to be making out half the time." Marinette rolled her eyes but held no hostility between the couple. "What else am I even going for, really? So my feet can hurt after twenty minutes?" 

"... What about Luka? I thought... I thought you were most excited to go with him. At least, you seemed to like it." 

She completely froze, dread covering her entire being about totally forgetting about Luka. "I-I.." She stuttered. She had become a bit flustered at being caught in forgetting about it. In hindsight, he had been around her this whole time and she hadn't given him the time of day. Even when they were going to prom together. Marinette could've gotten the best dress, fitted specifically for her and Luka. She could stay out all night hanging out with Alya, Nino, and Luka walking around Paris in their fancy clothing and forgetting about the world. At the end of it all, she still would've felt like something was missing. She wouldn't be satisfied. 

Marinette felt like a terrible person, but if she were being honest with herself, it was how she felt. "This is so heartless of me. But... even with Luka there, even with the perfect dress, I think I still would've felt this empty." She glanced over to Adrien and for the first time that night, felt positivity blossom inside her. A smile appeared on her dirtied face. 

He was just listening, soaking it all in. He offered no response, as he couldn't put together the proper words to do so. Marinette was admitting to him that she didn't want to do this. Even with Alya talking her ear off day in and day out about it, having her best boy friend going with her, and hanging out with friends all night, Marinette still found it difficult to enjoy the night for some reason.

A deep part of him wondered if that reason was him not being there, but he squashed that flame as soon as it was ignited.

"I-I still can't believe your Dad didn't let you go." Her voice drowned his thoughts as soon as he heard her. It had effectively brought him out of his head, probably because he hadn't responded. When looking up at her, he noticed her cheeks were flushed and she was once again avoiding his eyes. She was embarrassed. 

"Yeah. We have a dinner party tonight and he wouldn't have me miss it even if the sky was falling." He always missed out on the good stuff happening with his friends. Although he felt his cheeks warm, he did nothing but look at her. 

"I wish you could be there. I'm sure I wouldn't be as half as worried about all of this if you were going. Everyone would be looking at you and your model self instead of this horrid dress I'm wearing anyway." She held a teasing tone, slightly nudging him.

He chuckled. "So I could fifth wheel between Alya, Nino, Luka, and you? I think I'll pass." 

"You wouldn't be fifth wheeling, it would just be the four of us," Those words surprisingly came out confident, until she realized what she said. "I-I mean--the four of us--like Alya, Nino, Luka, and I .... and you and Kagami!" In the end, she just dug herself a deeper hole.

"Kagami?" Surprised, Adrien thought about it. "I don't think she'd be much of a dance person. Knowing how strict her family is too, we'd probably be wearing kimonos." 

As if that was a bad thing, Marinette thought. 

"Well, we can dream." She gulped, not knowing what to say next. If someone told her at some point she would be sitting on her bed with Adrien Agreste looking like this, she would've stabbed herself so she wouldn't have to go through this. Her attention was caught when Adrien had gotten up and headed over to her wardrobe, which had millions of things she had designed by herself. 

"W-Where are you going? What are you doing?" He kept looking at garment after garment as if looking for something specific. Marinette didn't have the heart to stop him either. The model Adrien Agreste, looking at her self-designed clothes? She'd pay him to critique anything she had. That's when he pulled out a certain dress. 

"Marinette... did you design this?" 

Unlike the dress she was wearing now, it was very red. And short. The only thing the dresses had in common was the lace covering them, but this time the lace on the dress reached over the shoulders and around the neck. It flared out perfectly at the end, making it look very fitting for any petite girl. 

The girl let out a sigh of relief when he had pulled it out. "Oh, that old thing? Yeah. Like two years ago. The materials I used were pretty expensive so I didn't want to throw it away at the time, but I never ended up wearing it because I was saving it for a special occasion." 

Adrien gave her one of the most awestruck faces he had ever put on in his life. "Marinette!" He urged. "This is perfect!"

She wasn't catching on so fast. "Hm? What do you mean?" 

"Wear this!" He pushed it into her lap almost forcefully. "This would look amazing on you!"

Naturally, a blush came across her face. Overwhelmed, she started stuttering. "W-What do you mean? I-I can't just put it on, Alya planned all of this-- a-and I need to try it on! I don't even know if it still fits me! Luka's tie is white too--we colour coded it--" 

Adrien swore he could see her head swaying from the sudden stress she was under. Not that she noticed, but he ended up smiling down at her. He wasn't so sure it was a good idea for an outfit change, but if he could even make a small change in her night, he would do it. Either way, she would look perfect in the dress, too perfect for words. The boy was 100% sure about that.

"What about the weather too!? It's raining outside, I'll be freezing-- this wasn't planned at all," In her madness, she barely processed Adrien stepping up to her and leaning over. His lips on her forehead felt like something out of a dream. Marinette was convinced it was a dream. It had the opposite effect in Adrien's view, as he only saw Marinette become even more of a tomato and float off into space. 

"I think I'm going to get going, my father is going to burn me at the stake if I'm not there in time to get ready." He let out a small laugh at how quick Marinette came to her senses when he told her he was leaving. "But I mean it, Marinette. You should really wear that." He even gave a wink to seal the deal as he picked up the boxes of sweets from the bakery. 

"I'm glad I came up here to see you before you left. I don't know how I would've felt if I saw you in pictures looking as sad as you did when I got here. Even if you still wear that white dress, I hope I could cheer you up at least a little." 

He did more than that, so much more, Marinette thought. Before he opened the hatch, she got up. "Adrien, wait!" 

A loud 'oof' left him as the girl had wrapped her arms wrapped around him tightly and brought him into a warm embrace. "Thank you." Her crying voice had long since worn out, and her voice sounded relaxed if anything. A big smile was on her face as she finally let him go. He gladly returned the smile. 

"Anytime, Marinette." 

******************************

"Can you check what time it is, Plagg?" Adrien groaned as he stepped through his bedroom door. He should've gone to his room earlier. It had fewer people, less noise, less everything. 

"Why can't you?" He flew out of the blonde's pocket with a piece of cheese, more than one piece actually. 

The being was answered when Adrien landed on his bed with a tired huff, Adrien hadn't even opened his eyes. Plagg came next to him, shaking his head before going into his pocket and pulling out the boy's phone. Turning it on, the big numbers '11:47' came onto the screen. 

"It's almost midnight," The kwami said before stuffing his face with cheese. 

"Are you kidding?" Adrien's words were muffled by his bed but still grabbed his phone to confirm. "He really had me out there this late. He didn't even come, though I should've expected that." He rolled onto his back and held his phone above his phone, all the while Plagg moved to lay on his stomach.

"It wasn't that bad. Did you see how much cheese there was? Enough to feed me for about a month." Soon enough, eve Plagg was exhausted from eating just as Adrien was. 

"Knowing you, you'd probably eat it in under fifteen minutes." He said as he mindlessly went through his phone to see if he got any messages while he was busy. One from Kagami reminding him about fencing tomorrow, another from Chloe asking him to hang out because she didn't go to the Prom and was bored. It reminded him that there was that humongous once in a lifetime school function that he couldn't go to. "At least I wasn't the only one who didn't go to Prom."

"If there was as much cheese as I saw at the dinner party, I wouldn't have gone either." 

Adrien's eyes rolled as he opened up his social media just to see plenty of pictures of his classmates at Prom. They all looked so wonderful, and they looked like they were having so much fun. Some stayed later to dance, like Kim, Alix, Ivan, and Mylene. Other's went home early but still got cute pictures, like Nathaniel and Marc. Rose and Juleka stayed late as well, but Adrien had found a picture of them sleeping in the corner together instead of dancing. 

His expression totally changed at Alya's post, when the pictures of her, Nino, Luka... and Marinette appeared. 

"Marinette wore the dress," He didn't even notice he was smiling. Her hair was down, her makeup totally redone and accessories galore that went perfectly with her dress. She also matched with Luka's outfit, but he didn't dwell too much on that. "Look at her, Plagg! Doesn't she look amazing?" He shoved the phone in his kwami's face, though Plagg was half asleep. 

Adrien kept going through the pictures and found that they left the party early to walk around Paris. It had stopped raining by the time they left, and the pictures of all of them partied out and just having fun together showed how much they had enjoyed themselves.

When Adrien had come across pictures Alya took of just Marinette, he would stare at them longer than the other ones. She did look beautiful, but the one thing he had noticed was that the smile that she had in every photo was real. Marinette was happy, and it had turned out to be long past midnight before he had stopped looking at the pictures of her and shut his phone off for the night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Honestly wrote this in under an hour at like 2 am so if you see any spelling mistakes man I am too lazy to go back and check them skjhgkjldf thanks again!


End file.
